very foot of the throne,
and secretly communicated with the court of Vienna, and dictated the
language necessary to intimidate France. The Memoirs of Hardenberg, the
Prussian minister, which have since been published, prove that these
accusations were not entirely the dreams of the demagogues; and that in
order to promote peace the two courts did all in their power to adopt
the same tone with each other. It was resolved that M. de Lessart should
be impeached, and Brissot, the leader of the diplomatic committee, the
advocate of war, undertook to prove his pretended crimes.

The constitutional party abandoned M. de Lessart, without any defence,
to the hatred of the Jacobins; this party had no suspicions, but
vengeance to wreak upon M. de Lessart. The king had suddenly dismissed
M. de Narbonne, the rival of this minister in the council. M. de
Narbonne, feeling himself menaced, caused La Fayette to write a letter,
in which he conjured him to remain at his post so long as the perils of
his country rendered it necessary.

This step, of which M. de Narbonne was cognisant, appeared to the king
an insolent act of oppression against his liberty and that of the
constitution. The popularity of M. de Narbonne diminished
proportionately as that of the Girondists became greater and inspired
them with more audacity. The Assembly began to change its applause into
murmurs when he mounted the tribune, whence a short time before he had
been shamefully forced to withdraw, because he had wounded the plebeian
susceptibility by appealing to the _most distinguished_ members of the
Assembly. The aristocracy of his rank showed itself beneath his uniform,
whilst the people wished for members of its own stamp in the councils;
and thus between the offended king and the suspicious Girondists, M. de
Narbonne fell. The king dismissed him, and he went to serve in the army
he had organised. His friends did not conceal their resentment. Madame
de Staeel lost in him her ambition and her ideal at the same time; but
she did not abandon all hope of regaining for M. de Narbonne the
confidence of the king, and of seeing him play a great political part.
She had sought to render him a Mirabeau, she now dreamed of making him a
Monk. From this day she conceived the idea of rescuing the king from the
power of the Jacobins and Girondists--of carrying him off through the
agency of M. de Narbonne and the constitutionalists--of re-seating him
on the throne--of crushing